San Jose: Supplement company admits in federal court to mislabeling synthetic steroids

SAN JOSE -- A company that specializes in selling bodybuilding nutritional supplements admitted in federal court Thursday that it knowingly misrepresented and sold a product that contained an unapproved synthetic steroid, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Santa Maria-based Myogenix, which boasts the slogans "Technology of Muscle" and "Total Body Transformation" on its website, sold a product called "Spawn" between 2007 and 2009 that contained a main active ingredient that was never approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

According to a DOJ release, "Myogenix knowingly labeled Spawn in a manner that was intended to deceive consumers and the FDA, in that it was labeled as a dietary supplement when in fact Spawn was a synthetic steroid."

Myogenix director of operations Mark Newman entered a guilty plea on behalf of the company to charges related to "introducing unapproved drugs into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead," according to the DOJ.

Myogenix was fined $50,000 and had to forfeit $100,000 that was deemed to have been gained illegally.

As part of plea agreements, for the next five years the company must submit all products to an independent testing organization, the results of which must be reviewed by the FDA before the product can be sold.